Hyper At Hogwarts - Year 2
by SideshowJazz1
Summary: Fern Alice Jordan is now twelve years old, and can't wait to get back to Hogwarts. But things are turbulent. Harry's hearing voices, the DADA teacher has no idea what he's doing, and Draco Malfoy is driving Fern insane! The slap after he insulted Hermione was good, but the longer Fern lets Draco blackmail her, the worse chances she has to escape...R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**Well, I promised another story, so here it is! Fern's second year at Hogwarts is under way! And yes, I know the timeline of when the group gets together at Diagon Alley is different, so don't point it out. And thank you to Lauren Kassidy, for being the last reviewer of year 1 of "Hyper At Hogwarts".**

Fern Alice Jordan was back at her home for the summer. She enjoyed her time, but she still wished her friends at school wrote more often. She had a steady correspondence with Ron Weasley, and even though Hermione Granger didn't write often, they talked on the phone a lot, but Harry Potter, the fourth member of the Quartet, hadn't sent any letters at all. She hadn't even managed to reach him on Facebook, although her other friends were on there occasionally (and that was very occasionally, since the Weasleys didn't own a computer and Hermione wasn't a Facebook lover). Fern had tried to call him, a few times.

The first time she called, she'd heard an unfamiliar boy answer "Dursley residence."

"Hi." Fern said. "Is Harry Potter there?"

"Who is this?"

"It's Fern Jordan, his friend from school."

"Sorry, you must have the wrong number."

Fern refrained from mentioning school the next time she called, but a voice she recognized as Harry's uncle insisted that there was no Harry Potter and not to call again. She did try, one more time, but it didn't work. The lack of communication was driving her crazy, but she still sent letters to him.

Hermione and Ron both said that they hadn't heard from Harry either.

"Did you try calling him?" Fern asked Hermione over the phone.

"No, I figured it wouldn't please his family." Hermione answered. "Ron said that he's asked Harry to stay over way too many times and he hasn't answered."

"I'll bet his family won't let him send his owl out." Fern assumed. "I've sent a letter to Ron saying that we should just go to Surrey and see why the lack of communication has ensued. It's Harry's birthday at the end of July. He shouldn't have to spend it in such a dismal place." She suddenly realized all the elaborate words she'd used. "I think you've rubbed off on me. I don't usually talk like a book."

"Are you saying I talk like a book?" Hermione demanded jokingly.

"Well, you read a lot of them." Fern giggled.

Fern had to go to Diagon Alley in early August to get her stuff for second year, and she'd arranged to meet up with Hermione. She'd also heard from both Ron and Hermione that Harry had been locked up in his room, but now he was staying with the Weasleys, so she was hoping to see them too.

Practically the minute Fern stepped into Diagon Alley with her parents, she spotted Hermione with her parents. "HEY, HERMIONE!" It was pretty safe to say that the other girl didn't know what had hit her. Fern hugged Hermione as a greeting.

"Can't...breathe..." she gasped.

Fern stopped and let go. "Oh, uh, sorry."

Fern's parents caught up with them, and greeted the Grangers.

"We were just heading to Gringotts Bank to change currencies." Hermione said.

Fern nodded. She'd had to do the same before first year, and remembered the process "Let's go!"

The Jordans had changed their money, and the Grangers were just about to do the same when Harry and the Weasleys all walked in. Harry and Ron, of course, had to go to their vaults, having wizard parents and not having Muggle currency. Ron had mentioned to Fern about how his father was interested in Muggle culture, but she wasn't expecting Mr Weasley's enthusiasm in meeting both her and Hermione's parents, and it made her giggle, a lot (although she tried not to let anyone know).

After Gringotts, everyone separated. Fern and Hermione's parents both were taken off to the Leaky Cauldron with Mr Weasley for a drink. Percy, apparently, wanted a new quill, and the twins spotted Lee from their year group. Mrs Weasley was going to get new robes for Ginny, Ron's little sister who was starting Hogwarts that year. So the four twelve-year-olds were left to go around by themselves, all of them planning to meet at Flourish and Blotts in an hour to get their textbooks.

As the Quartet walked, they caught up on each other's stories. "I've missed you three so much!" Fern exclaimed. "I mean, letters and telephone conversations are fine, but still...Harry, I called you three times, but your uncle had a bit of a violent reaction to me asking to speak to you, and told me never to call again. He insisted that you didn't exist."

"That's because they don't want me to exist." Harry said quietly. It was a toneless remark, not self-pitying or resentful, simply because he was used to it, and didn't care so much any more.

In Flourish and Blotts, there was a book signing being done by Gilderoy Lockhart, the man who had written almost the whole list of textbooks they needed.

Lockhart saw the Quartet in the crowd, but it was only Harry he took an interest in. He pulled him to the front to be in the picture in the Daily Prophet, and then made a speech. That was when the students found out that he was taking over the job in Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher in Hogwarts.

Fern laughed at him. "Egotist." she whispered to Ron and Hermione.

"Well, if you read his books, I think he has reason to be." Hermione whispered back.

At that moment, as Harry got out of the limelight, Fern heard a familiar voice, and her heart sank. "Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter?"

Fern hadn't told her friends about how Draco Malfoy had blackmailed her into dating him. He was one of the only people she wasn't looking forward to seeing again, with the exception of Professor Snape, who she hated for the way he'd treated Harry the year before. But anyhow, she and the others began to make their way over to where Harry and Draco were standing, as Draco continued "Famous Harry Potter. Can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page."

Ginny was standing nearby, and she spoke up. "Leave him alone, he didn't want all that."

Draco nearly laughed. "Potter, you've got yourself a girlfriend!" Ginny blushed.

Fern took all her frustration out on him, since it was all caused by him. "Draco Malfoy, leave the first year alone and remind me why you're embarrassing Harry and Ginny when you were just _so _desperate to have a girlfriend last term?"

Draco didn't get a chance to reply, as Ron said "Bet you're surprised to see Harry here, huh?"

"Not as surprised as I am to see you in a shop, Weasley." Draco retorted. "I suppose your parents will have to go hungry for a month to pay for that lot."

"And that's way over the line." Fern muttered angrily as Ron's freckles disappeared in his blush. Both he and Fern stepped towards Draco, but Harry and Hermione held them back.

That was when not only did Mr Weasley come up, but so did Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father. They nearly ended up fighting, and Fern was relieved when everyone was out. Fern and Hermione left for the Muggle street on the other side of the Leaky Cauldron with their parents.

"See you at school!" the boys called.

**First chapter done. Of course, Fern will be on the train easily, but still. Please, review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Let's continue, huh? Enjoy! Thanks for reviewing, Soccerisawesome19 and Lauren Kassidy!**

Fern had decided to actually learn some of the stuff out of her textbooks for once, thinking that it wasn't fair if she always got her notes from Hermione. After all, she and the boys copied her in History of Magic enough, since Hermione was the only student who paid any attention to Professor Binns. So Fern read through all of Lockhart's (signed) works, and she realized what Hermione meant by him having a reason to be so egotistical. He did seem to have done a lot.

Now that Harry was with Ron, Fern could owl both of them and get replies. She still talked with Hermione quite often, and couldn't wait to see them again.

Fern's best friend Jamie came to the station to say goodbye. "Tell Hermione and the guys I said hi!" Jamie told her. "You have got to get them to stay over sometime. I want to meet them! Oh, and when you get a chance, give Malfoy a slap. That's from me too, for what he's done to you!"

"Don't worry, I will!" Fern called, as she ran through the pillar to Platform 9¾.

Hermione was on the train, as usual, but when the train moved off and Harry and Ron were stil MIA, Fern got a little bit worried. So did Hermione.

That was when Fern decided to let one of her best friends in on the blackmailing. She knew Hermione's reaction already, but a year of seeing Draco every day would make an explanation of why she wasn't avoiding him essential.

"Hermione, I have to tell you something." Fern said, much more seriously than usual. "But you have to promise not to tell anyone until I'm ready to let people know." Hermione nodded, so Fern continued. "Well, you remember the Quidditch match last term, Hufflepuff vs us, when I was standing up to Malfoy and then he pulled me away from the game?"

Hermione gave another nod. "I still don't understand why you let him. You never took any other crap from him."

Fern looked uneasy. The last thing she needed was for someone else to find out she thought Draco was cute. "Anyway," she said, "He pulled out this letter I'd gotten from my friend Jamie, which I must've dropped a few days before that. I'd been telling her a bunch of stuff about Snape – not our suspicions, but about him refereeing Quidditch, and when we thought he jinxed Harry's broom. And so Jamie's letters reflected that. Anyway, Draco threatened to show off the letter if I didn't ask him out."

Hermione's eyes were wide. "So..." she said, "You just did it?"

Fern scowled. "I'm not proud of it." she admitted. "It's just, I made the deal so that he couldn't tell anyone else, cause he promised that it wouldn't get back to you or the guys without me allowing it. I also did it so we're on a first name basis."

Hermione was silent for a moment. Finally, she said "I'll admit, I had seen the way he looks at you, kind of triumphantly. It tells me that he's only doing this to make you uncomfortable. Does he still have the letter?"

Fern shrugged. "But he's not afraid to use offensive power on people. I know that Snape would just love an excuse to punish Gryffindor, especially because of something done by a friend of Harry's. I can't stand to give him the satisfaction."

"Shouldn't you tell one of the staff what he's doing?" Hermione asked.

Fern shook her head. "I can't. He'll still do it. And to tell the truth, he hasn't actually done anything to me yet. I don't know if he really knows what he's doing himself. I mean, well, he did kiss me. Once. I just can't tell if he wants to lead me on, or if he's just annoying me."

"I don't think he's mature enough to think about leading you on." Hermione assured her friend. "He's probably just trying to annoy you."

Until Hermione had mentioned it, Fern hadn't considered that Draco wasn't planning to break her heart in the end, and she was calmed by the idea that he was just trying to get to her in a strange way. And it was working, she'd admit it. But she smiled. "Thanks, Hermione. I feel better about this. Anyway, my friend Jamie reminded me to give him a slap from her. That'll be worth everything."

At school, Harry and Ron still hadn't turned up, but the girls saw Ginny being sorted into Gryffindor, and Fern waved her over.

The girls only found Harry and Ron standing outside the Gryffindor common room after the feast. By that time, a bucketload of rumours had been spreading about them.

"Someone said you'd been expelled for crashing a flying car!" Hermione told them.

"We haven't been expelled." Harry answered.

"You're not telling me you _did _fly here?"

"Hermione, lay off them." Fern spoke up. "You have got to tell me every detail later."

They got into the common room (the password was 'wattlebird') and nearly everyone started congratulating the boys on their entrance, including the twins, Lee Jordan, and others who none of the second-years had even spoken to. They probably would've stayed down there longer if not for Percy, Perfect Prefect, who wasn't looking happy at all. The boys made an excuse to go up to their dorm.

"Hermione, don't be too hard on them." Fern whispered. "You haven't got the whole story."

"But still..." Hermione whispered back. "You're not telling me that you're thinking like everyone else, that it was cool for them to have done something like that?" She read Fern's expression easily. "Fern, it was irresponsible to do that! I can't believe you think that!"

Fern scowled at that. "Look, I'm going up to bed. See you later." Really, even though Hermione was one of her best friends, she sometimes couldn't stand how pious she sometimes was!

**That chapter was exactly 1000 words long originally. Wow. Anyway, hope you liked it, please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Now, let's continue.**

Hermione stopped being cold with the boys the next day, probably on account of the Howler Ron was sent by his mother for taking the car. The Howler was a red enveloped letter that magically yelled out the letter's contents one hundred times louder than it needed to be. Neville covered his ears before Ron opened it.

After it was over, Fern, who was sitting next to Hermione, whispered "Well, will you stop punishing the boys for the flying car thing now? That was enough for anyone!"

Hermione gave a half-smile and nodded, which was good enough. By the end of breakfast, Hermione was back to normal with the boys.

Herbology was first, with the Hufflepuffs, but Lockhart collared Harry, apparently wanting to speak with him briefly, so he was a couple of minutes late. Fern tried her best to hang back, but she ended up going with the rest of the group, so she didn't hear much.

"So he was serious about taking that teaching post." she muttered under her breath. She wasn't that impressed with his books, really. He seemed to be more interested in himself than his discoveries.

In Herbology, groups of four had to plant Mandrakes in trays. The Quartet was together, which was nice.

Transfiguration was next, and Ron's wand showed that it needed replacing after it got snapped in the car. Fern heard Harry suggesting Ron wrote home for a new one, but the Howler was obviously affecting Ron's mood and he wasn't going to write home, only to get Howler No. 2.

DADA, their first lesson with Lockhart, was that afternoon, but lunch was when Harry got more fame thrusted upon him. Hermione was reading one of the textbooks, and the others were all talking about Quidditch, when they realized a first-year was watching them, holding a camera.

He addressed Harry, blushing, when he realized he'd been caught staring. "All right, Harry? I'm – I'm Colin Creevey. I'm in Gryffindor too. Do you think – it'll be alright if – can I have a picture? So I can prove I've met you."

Fern tuned out as Colin continued to babble on, and whispered to Ron "More like Colin _Creepy_. Seems like he's trying to open up the Harry Potter Fan Club." She giggled when she saw Ron go pink with the effort of trying not to laugh.

Suddenly, Fern was brought back to the ground with a thump. Colin had asked Harry if he could sign the picture at the wrong time.

"Signed photos?" Draco had overheard. "You're giving out signed photos now, Potter? Everyone queue up, Potter's giving out signed photos!"

Harry clenched his fists. "No, I'm not. Shut up, Malfoy."

"You're just jealous." Colin chimed in.

Draco had gotten half the courtyard's attention, and he was performing for the benefit of the audience. "Jealous, of what? I don't want a scar right across my head, thanks. I don't think getting your head cut open makes you that special myself."

"Eat slugs, Malfoy." Ron began threateningly, but Draco just taunted him about the Howler. Then he added another jibe about the Weasley family's wealth, and Ron would've tried to hex him if Lockhart hadn't appeaed.

"Who's giving out signed photos?" he began, then he saw the Quartet. "Shouldn't have asked! We meet again, Harry!" Lockhart decided to get into Colin's picture too. "A double portrait, can't say fairer than that, and we'll both sign it for you."

Fern remembered something else Colin had said, and suggested kindly "Hey, Colin, do you want to get into the picture with them? I can take the photo. I know how these cameras work."

Colin gave her a shy smile and stammered "No, it's OK, I'll just take it now quickly."

DADA started five minutes after that. "You'd better hope Creevey doesn't meet Ginny," Ron said. "They'll be starting a Harry Potter fan club."

"Hey, you stole my joke." Fern pretended to pout. "I was the one who thought Creevey would start that."

"Shut up." muttered Harry. Fern saw his eyes flick to Lockhart, and understood.

The first thing they got in class was a 54-question quiz about "Professor Egotist" as Fern nicknamed him in her mind. However, since the books' most irrelevant points had sparked her sense of humour, she did do pretty well on the quiz, even remembering Lockhart's favourite colour. Some of them she faked, though, like she said Lockhart's ideal birthday gift would be "A Michael Jackson CD". She doubted he even knew who Michael Jackson was, since she'd learned that most witches and wizards didn't know of Muggle music.

Not many people had remembered Lockhart's favourite colour, so Fern got five points. Hermione got ten for getting Question 2 right.

For the last half-hour of class, Lockhart let Cornish pixies out all over the classroom, meaning that within seconds, they were creating chaos. A few even hung Neville off a candelabra.

When the bell finally rang, Lockhart caught sight of the Quartet and they were the ones stuck rounding up the last of the pixies.

"Can you believe him?" Ron yelled over the noise the pixies were making.

"He just wants to give us some hands-on experience." Hermione rationalized. But the other students knew that whatever Lockhart said, he didn't have a clue what he was doing. He was obsessed with himself.

Fern started to wish that her answer to the last question on the quiz had been 'a mirror'. She would've liked to know what he would've made of that.

But the students managed to subdue the pixies in the end, and made a quick escape.

**How the hell did Lockhart land a job at Hogwarts? I know, he was the only one applying for it, but he has no idea what he's doing. Please review! The chapters will be a little slower coming out, since my hard drive crashed and I have to write them all again. Lucky I printed all the "Chamber Of Secrets" and "Prisoner Of Azkaban" chapters I'd written in advance. I've even got a a "Goblet Of Fire" chapter ready.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Quidditch practise. I don't know why I like this scene, but I do. Maybe it's because I can unleash an amount of frustration on my second-favourite character in the series (Luna's my first). Enjoy! Thanks for reviewing, Soccerisawesome19 and Lauren Kassidy.**

**Before I start this chapter, I would like to ask a favour of all of you. I recently wrote a one-shot called "The Fairy and the Changeling" based off the children's book "Midnight" by Jacqueline Wilson (but it's in the Vicky Angel archive. Could you please read it, even if you haven't read the book?**

Harry spent the next few days trying to avoid Lockhart and Colin, who was having an attack of fanboyism. It didn't help that Colin seemed to have memorized his timetable.

On the first Saturday of the term, Harry was forced to get up early for Quidditch practise called by the Gryffindor captain, Oliver Wood, which he was not in the best of moods about. After about an hour of explanations of new plans, the team went out to the field. Colin had turned up to take pictures already, and the rest of the Quartet was waiting in the stand.

The team only practised for ten minutes before another team turned up – the Slytherin team, led by captain Marcus Flint. The rest of the Quartet went to find out what was going on, and Fern stepped back a little bit when she saw Slytherin's new Seeker, which happened to be the last person she wanted to see. Draco wore his usual smirk, which grew when he noticed Fern.

"What's he doing here?" Ron demanded, his question directed at Harry. Draco answered instead.

"I'm the new Slytherin Seeker, Weasley." he said smugly. "Everyone's just been admiring the brooms my father's bought our team."

Fern didn't even listen to his next comment, because she knew he was going to comment on the Cleansweep Fives the Weasley twins had (they were the Beaters on Gryffindor's team).

"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in." Hermione countered. "They got in on pure talent."

Draco's reply was bracketed with a scowl, and although Fern didn't know the term he used, she knew that it wasn't good. "Nobody asked your opinion," he said, glaring at Hermione, "You filthy little Mudblood."

Half the team caused an uproar at the words. Not only that, but Ron got as far as actually trying to hex the other with slugs. But it backfired and had Ron spitting out slugs every minute.

Harry looked at Ron's condition, and said to the girls. "We'd better get him to Hagrid's, it's nearest." The two girls nodded and the whole Quartet went. They were dragged behind a hedge when they saw Lockhart coming out of Hagrid's hut, but once he was gone, they managed to get in and explain the situation.

"What did Lockhart want with you, Hagrid?" asked Harry.

"Giving me advice on getting kelpies out of a well." muttered Hagrid. "Like I don't know. And going on about some Banshee he banished. If one word of it was true, I'll eat my kettle."

Hermione started on her Lockhart-defense until Fern nudged her more roughly than necessary.

"So," said Hagrid, gesturing to Ron, "Who was he trying to curse?"

"Malfoy called Hermione something." Harry explained. "It must've been really bad, cause everyone went mad."

The slugs stopped long enough for Ron to be able to say "It was bad. Malfoy called her 'mudblood'."

Hagrid looked pretty outraged. "He didn't!"

"He did." Hermione confirmed. "But I don't know what it means."

"It's about the most insulting thing he could think of." Ron explained, going on to tell them what it meant. The eyes of the rest of the Quartet went wide. It was the most offensive name people could call a muggleborn witch or wizard, a degrading name because their family didn't have any magic ability.

"Oz," muttered Fern. "I knew he thought he was better than everyone else, but saying something like that warrants a second slap to Jamie's one that I still haven't delivered." She quickly addressed everyone. "Sorry," she said, "But I have to go. I have a message to deliver."

However, Fern only managed to get to Draco in the Great Hall that evening. Before he reached the Slytherin table, she pulled him out of the room quickly, slapped him and said "That's from my friend Jamie." She slapped him again and added "And that's for what you said to Hermione this morning. If you enjoy this, you might want to show off my letter anyway."

Draco smirked, although he looked out of place with his cheeks having more colour than Fern had ever seen before. "I think you're much more valuable with me than against me." he said dangerously. "And I've still got the letter with me. Plus, I've got enough dirt on you and your friends to get you all detention." He brought the letter out, and it seemed well preserved. Fern resolved to write to Jamie that evening. "I mean," Draco finished. "Those are the only things that have you staying with me. I have nothing else to keep you."

"I'm not planning on breaking up with you," Fern admitted. "But you call anyone names like that again, I'll make sure the next time a hex is sent your way, it won't miss. And I don't care how rich you are or how important your father is." With that, she walked away to join the rest of the Quartet.

That evening, she wrote to Jamie.

_Hey Jamie,_

_I gave Draco the slap from you, and I doubled it because of what he said today. He's on the Slytherin Quidditch team now, as the Seeker, and Hermione said something about him buying his way in, because his father got the whole team new brooms – Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones! The best broom on the Gryffindor is Harry's Nimbus Two Thousand. Anyway, when Hermione said that, Draco called her the worst name he could think of – 'mudblood'. It's an offensive name for muggleborn people – the 'mud' bit kind of gives it away. Can you believe that? I know Draco's a pureblood, but he had no right to call someone that, so I slapped him twice. Ron DID try to hex him, but his wand's broken and he hexed himself instead. I wish it had been Malfoy spewing slugs instead of Ron. BTW, I've told Hermione about the blackmail._

_Harry's not having the best time, either. Between our new DADA teacher, Professor Lockhart drawing attention to him, and this first year Colin stalking him, he's been getting pretty moody. Plus, he had to get up early for Quidditch practise this morning._

_Lockhart thinks he's perfect, but he has no idea what he's doing. (Burn this after reading and write LH, same thing with S). Miss you! Tell me what's going on at home._

_Love Fern_

Daly brought Jamie's reply back almost immediately.

_Hey Fern_

_I hope those slaps hurt that snob! I can't believe that he said that to Hermione! And doesn't that apply to you too? You're muggleborn. Why doesn't Ron get a new wand? But you gave me a great mental image of both him and Malfoy spitting up slugs. Wish the hex hadn't backfired and hit Ron, though, don't misunderstand._

_LH sounds like an attention seeker. And that Colin kid...has he started/joined Harry's fan club or something? Tell Harry I feel his pain. The teachers are much harder to deal with than they were last year. One of them nearly reduced Nancy to tears last Friday. Write back and tell me more! Update me on Malfoy's advances. Hermione will probably come up with something, right?_

_Love Jamie_

**Well, as you might have guessed, Draco's insult to Hermione outraged me. Please review, even if you don't look at my other one!**


	5. Chapter 5

**OK, now let's continue. Read below for details! And to the troll, I'm testing Fern now. Last time, it said she wasn't Mary-Sue. And to Lauren Kassidy/Lily Rae, yes, I think you did mention you had two accounts, and thanks for reviewing!**

Fern didn't read Jamie's letter when she first got it. She was more concerned, as Halloween was drawing near. Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost, had asked Harry (and the Quartet) to skip the Halloween feast and go to his Deathday Party, to try to convince the leader of the Headless Hunt that he was frightening enough to join. He had been denied before, because his skin still kept his head clinging to his neck by a few threads. It was pretty depressing, in Fern's opinion, and the Quartet agreed, although they had to go. It would be no fun at all. But anyway, on the way there, Fern dropped her unread letter without noticing.

At one point, Hermione told the group to turn back when she noticed "Moaning" Myrtle, the ghost of a Ravenclaw girl who haunted one of the girls' bathrooms.

"Hey, I've never met her." said Fern. "How come I never went to that bathroom?"

Hermione shrugged. "I don't go there if I can avoid it. It's awful with her wailing at you."

Sadly, Peeves was also at the party, and overheard Hermione talking, so he called Myrtle over. "Miss Granger was just talking about you-"

"Just saying how nice you look tonight." Hermione interrupted quickly.

"You're making fun of me." Myrtle assumed.

"No, honestly – didn't I just say how nice Myrtle's looking?" Hermione nudged her friends and they all backed her up, but Myrtle refused to believe them, insisting that everyone said mean things about her.

Something about Myrtle's crying touched Fern. "Hey, don't cry!" she said, stepping closer to the ghost girl. "I know we haven't met before, but I'm Fern Jordan. I'm in some trouble too, actually, over this really annoying guy. Don't suppose you have any tips on how to get a guy to leave you alone?"

Myrtle looked up and said suspiciously "What do you mean?"

"Just what I said." Fern told her. "But don't tell anyone else, OK?" The ghost girl and the living girl walked a little way away, Fern calling "I'll catch up with you three later, OK?"

Hermione was the only one of the group who knew what Fern was talking about, but she told the boys to wait until Fern was ready to tell them. As for Fern herself, she was glad to make a new friend, even if it was a depressing whiny ghost, and she didn't leave without promising to visit Myrtle. She had guessed that the ghost would feel flattered that someone would confide in her if she really thought everyone was cruel about her.

But that all went out of Fern's head after Harry claimed to be hearing a voice, which he had mentioned before. But no one else had heard it. "It's going to kill someone!" he exclaimed, taking off. The rest of the Quartet ran after him.

That was when they came after caretaker Mr Filch's cat, Mrs Norris, who was stiffly hanging below words on the wall: THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR BEWARE.

Before the Quartet could run, most of Hogwarts came down the passageway, falling silent and stopping as they saw Mrs Norris.

Draco appeared right at the front of the crowd. He saw the Quartet, and called out "Enemies of the heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!"

Fern began towards him for using the term, but he held up an envelope and waved it, making her stop. Her name was on it, and she knew the handwriting.

It was Jamie's letter.

Filch was quick to blame Harry when he saw his beloved cat presumably dead. Luckily, Dumbledore arrived on the scene and although the Quartet all had to go to the nearest study (Lockhart's), the Quartet knew that things would turn out fairly. Lockhart hovered, of course, since it was his office. So did Professor McGonagall and Snape. It turned out the Mrs Norris was actually Petrified. However, Filch kept insisting that Harry did it, even when Dumbledore pointed out that it was advanced dark magic and a second-year wasn't capable of something like that. The whole group gave their explanations, but they didn't seem any good. Snape even suggested taking Harry off the Quidditch team until he told the entire truth about what happened.

McGonagall, luckily, argued that point. "There is no evidence at all that Potter has done anything wrong."

Mandrakes, the plants the second-years were planting, would be able to revive Mrs Norris, which was good news, and the students were free to go.

"Do you think I should've told them about about that voice I heard?" Harry asked.

"No." Ron answered. "Hearing voices, even in the wizarding world, isn't a good sign."

Fern had only half her mind on the attack. The other half was on Jamie's letter. The next day, she manage to find Draco on his own in the corridor, and immediately cornered him. "Give me my letter!" she hissed.

Draco had been taken by surprise, but he almost immediately recovered. "Why not?" he said slyly. "I know, we should read it together. I've been dying to know if she's given me any new information." He tore the letter open and skimmed the contents. He glanced up at Fern. "So you've told her what I said to Granger. And it looks like you've been whining on about Lockhart to her. And you've told her about us, I can tell. Maybe this requires me to tell everyone else about-"

"You promised!" Fern protested. "I didn't break up with you. If you do tell, that'll warrant another few slaps, and then you won't have me around any more. Oh, and I'll throw in a free hex. While Ron's wand might not be in prime condition, mine won't miss."

"Oh, so could you really stand to leave me alone then?" Draco challenged, slightly flirtatiously.

Fern thought about it seriously, trying not to blush, then shook her head. "No." She began to smile, her whole face lit up. "No, but I've thought about what I would do. I'd show you why us muggleborns are so much more than those Mudbloods you call us. I'll bet you don't even know what an iPod is!"

Draco's puzzled look made Fern certain she was right. "You know what?" she said. "Screw it! Whether you tell or not, I'm going to enlighten you anyway! See you around!" And with that, Fern was in a good enough mood to annoy and confuse Draco by kissing him on the cheek of her own free will, and then skipping off, humming, ironically, Taylor Swift's song _We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together._

**I wanted to think of a happy song, so if you don't like the song, tough. I only realized it was ironic after I wrote it down. I am changing little things from my original story as I wrote it before my drive crashed, such as Draco's blackmail being more solid. Please review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Now, shall we go on? Thank you for reviewing, soccerisawesome19.**

Hermione tried to find out everything she could about the Chamber of Secrets, as the days passed. She even asked Professor Binns, but he insisted that it didn't exist, although he told them about it on Hermione's request. Apparently, it had been sealed by one of the four founders of the school, Salazar Slytherin. It would only open when the true heir of Slytherin would return and open it. Slytherin hadn't wanted muggleborns in Hogwarts (although the other three founders had outvoted him), and when the Chamber was opened, it would unleash its horror on those people in particular – people like Fern, people like Hermione.

After class, Colin caught up with the Quartet, and began to say something about a boy in his year talking about Harry, but he didn't have time to finish. The Quartet got to the corridor where the message had been, and found a few strange things. Harry found scorch marks and Hermione saw a silvery thread around the window that too many spiders were lining up past and scuttling along. Harry and Fern got a good look at them, but Ron stayed well back. "I don't like spiders." he confessed fearfully, adding that he'd been scared of them since the time one of the twins turned his teddy into a spider when he was little, because he broke their toy broomstick.

The group went into the nearest bathroom to discuss the clues, which said it was out of order. Hermione assured everyone that no one would be there, because it was where Moaning Myrtle lived.

Hermione politely greeted Myrtle when they first walked in, but Fern's greeting was a lot more genuine.

"Hey, Myrtle!" she squealed. "How are you? What's up? I promised I'd visit you, right? Well, here I am!"

Myrtle looked up from picking one of her spots, and looked at Ron and Harry. "This is a girls' bathroom." she said. "They're not girls.

"We know." Fern and Hermione said together.

"Um..." Hermione tried to think of an excuse. "We just wanted to...show them how nice it is in here."

"Ask her if she saw anything." Harry mouthed at the girls.

Myrtle caught it. "What are you whispering?" she asked immediately.

"It's not a secret or anything. We had a question-" Fern began.

Myrtle sounded like she was trying not to cry as she interrupted. "I wish people would stop talking behind my back! I do have feelings, you know, even if I am dead!"

Hermione tried fruitlessly to calm her down. "Myrtle, no one wants to upset you. Harry only-"

But Myrtle was already in tears, whining on about how her whole life had been miserable, and now her death was, too. When she finally answered their question, she admitted that she hadn't seen anything. She'd been feeling so bad about herself that night (after Fern left, Peeves had been making fun of her) that she'd tried to hang herself before she remembered she was already dead. After telling them that, she burst into fresh tears and disappeared into the pipes.

"Myrtle, wait!" Fern called down as her friends left. She could hear Myrtle still crying. "OK, I'll leave you to it, if you want. But do you want me to come back sometime?"

Myrtle's sobs stopped for a moment, and she said shakily "Yes, you can come. But next time, don't bring your friends. I can't stand the way that Hermione Granger pretends she's so nice when she really wishes I didn't exist."

Fern didn't know what to say to that. "Well, I'll see you later." she said finally, and followed the rest of the Quartet out, only to find that the boys were being told off by Percy for being in a girls' bathroom.

That night was the same night they came to a likely conclusion about the heir of Slytherin. It could easily be Draco! After all, the Malfoys were a pureblooded family who didn't exactly approve of muggleborns.

"But how can we prove it?" Harry wondered.

Hermione explained that they'd have to use Polyjuice Potion to transform themselves into Slytherins. Then they could simply ask Draco.

"Do I really need to do that?" Fern asked. "He's got so much to blackmail me with that he'd probably tell me no matter what."

Hermione looked doubtful. "I don't think so. No matter what he thinks of you, you're still a Gryffindor, and you're one of us."

The group managed to find the book that had the potion recipe with a little difficulty. Fern was the most interested in the idea that you needed part of the person you were going to become.

But the more immediate concern was the Quidditch match against Slytherin, and that was eventful. Halfway through the match, a Bludger started chasing Harry for no reason at all, trying to attack him specifically. He still caught the Snitch, but had to go to the infirmary with a broken arm. Well, he would have if Lockhart hadn't tried to fix it himself and ended up losing Harry all the bones in his right arm, meaning he had to regrow them in the infirmary.

The rest of the group heard the next morning about the news. Colin had been Petrified! Harry was also able to tell them why the Bludger had been chasing him. In the holidays, a house-elf called Dobby had been trying to stop him from going back to school, taking the letters the rest of the group sent him, making trouble at Privet Drive, and sealing the barrier to Platform 9¾ when Harry and Ron tried to get through. He kept saying that Harry wouldn't be safe at school, and so he jinxed the Bludger, hoping that Harry would be injured enough so that he would have to leave.

But back to the latest attack – on Colin. Ginny seemed distraught over it. The twins were trying to cheer her up, but in the most insensitive way possible until Percy stopped them.

Christmas drew near, and the Quartet decided to stay at school (Harry and the Weasleys had no choice, since Harry wasn't welcome at Privet Drive at Christmas, and the Weasley's parents wouldn't be home). Fern wasn't sure of staying, but Draco was going to be there, and the Polyjuice Potion would be ready by then.

"But couldn't you all stay with me for part of the break, and we could all go back to school together?" she suggested, but then remembered that they had to fit in with the train. She wrote to her parents and friends to tell them that she'd be staying at school for Christmas.

_Sorry, _she wrote to her parents, _But everyone needs me. Something's going on, and we need to find out what. _She was purposely a bit vague, since she didn't want to worry her parents. She knew they'd want to take her away from Hogwarts if she told them, and she couldn't stand to leave everything with loose threads. She did write the truth to Jamie, and gave her permission to tell the other girls, but swore them to secrecy (she'd already told them that Draco was trying to get as many of her letters as possible). They all sent back letters, telling her to be careful, but they were all very supportive, and they promised not to tell.

But Christmas was still a ways away, and meanwhile, the Quartet would have to get all the ingredients for the Polyjuice, and also witness an interesting duelling session.

**More on that next chapter. Please review.**


	7. Chapter 7

**OK, let's continue. Thanks for reviewing, Lily Rae and Rufescent.**

The Quartet had devised a plan to create a distraction in Potions, so Hermione and Fern could go and get the ingredients for the Polyjuice Potion (Hermione had suspected Harry and Ron would get caught, but Snape barely acknowledged Fern's existence and couldn't pin a crime on Hermione, the smartest girl in the class).

Snape did say if he found out who caused the distraction that he would have the culprit expelled (and did look at Harry), but Fern didn't take Harry's concerns that Snape knew it was him seriously. "He has no proof, so he can't do a thing. Don't worry."

About a week after that, a Duelling Club was set up, which the Quartet went to, although they didn't know who was running it. Hermione thought that the teacher might be Flitwick, but Harry groaned when he saw it was Lockhart. Fern timed her own groan of sympathy and support so it was in unison.

Snape was helping Lockhart demonstrate. "Wouldn't it be good if they finished each other off?" Ron whispered.

Soon enough, Lockhart decided to pair up the students, probably due to the fact that he, as usual, had no idea what he was supposed to be doing. Harry and Ron hoped to pair up, as did Fern and Hermione, but Snape wasn't having any of that, and split them up. He made Ron pair up with another Gryffindor, and Harry moved closer to the girls.

"I don't think so." Snape smirked. "Mr Malfoy, come over here. Let's see what you can make of the famous Potter. And you, Miss Granger, you can partner Miss Bulstrode." Miss Bulstrode was a heavyset Slytherin girl whose first name was Millicent.

Snape didn't even seem to notice Fern, and would have moved on if she hadn't called out "Excuse me, sir, who am I to be paired with?"

Snape turned back and said coldly "Miss Jordan, I should think you would have noticed that there is only one student left." He gestured to the other side of the room to a pretty Slytherin girl, who pouted, but reluctantly trudged over to join Fern. Fern actually found her existence useful. She needed the hair of a Slytherin for the Polyjuice Potion to work, and the girl had long hair that stuck to her robes easily. So Fern managed to pull a few off without the girl noticing. She carefully stuck them in her pocket, reminding herself to put them in a container when she got a chance to go to the dorms.

Harry and Draco ended up demonstrating for everyone there. Everything went as expected, until Draco sent a black snake out of his wand, and it prepared to strike at one of the Hufflepuffs – Justin Finch-Fletchley.

Fern stared as Harry began speaking in a snake-esque language she didn't understand. But she could tell that he'd told the snake to back off, because it stopped, and left Justin alone. Even so, he didn't seem grateful. Ron explained much later that it had sounded like Harry was telling the snake to do the exact opposite.

"You're a Parselmouth." Ron said in the common room after Duelling Club was over. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I'm a what?"

"A Parselmouth! You can talk to snakes!"

Harry admitted that he'd once accidentally set a snake on his cousin at the zoo, which he'd talked to beforehand, but that was all. He said he didn't even realize he was speaking something other than English.

"Being able to talk to snakes was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for." Hermione explained.

Fern muttered something about going up to the dorm and fled. She just couldn't stand it a minute longer. There were several things wrong with this set up. Right now, Draco seemed less of a possibility to be the heir of Slytherin. She didn't think it was Harry, not really, but she had to sort things out in her head, so she couldn't stand a moment longer in the common room.

Justin was Petrified soon after the snake thing, and everyone jumped to the conclusion Fern had thought of – that Harry was the heir of Slytherin. Fern herself had gotten through it, and was one hundred percent supportive of her friend. When just the two of them caught a bunch of Hufflepuffs talking about it, Fern wanted to punch them in the faces when they refused to listen to anything that might prove Harry innocent of the crimes, saying that he chased the snake towards Justin.

However, the Weasley twins didn't take the accusations seriously at all. They found it hilarious, and kept cracking jokes about it, asking Harry who he was going to attack next, or pretending to be terrified of him. Percy got quite annoyed at them, and Ginny kept wailing at them to stop whenever they did something. Harry found it helped, the twins finding the accusations stupid enough to tease about it.

There weren't many people around by Christmas, though. Crabbe and Goyle were staying, out of their usual loyalty to Draco, and a few of the Slytherin girls were there too. Fern was thankful that one of them was the one she'd duelled.

Christmas itself was fun, as everyone exchanged gifts and Christmas dinner was good. But then it was time to get information out of Draco. When Fern asked the name of the girl whose hair she had, Hermione told her it was Daphne Greengrass.

Everyone was given a bottle to put their hair in, and they also got a Sleeping Draught to keep the person they were masquerading as occupied. Harry would be Goyle, and Ron would be Crabbe. Hermione, like Fern, had gotten hair off her duelling partner's robes, and would be Millicent.

They used Moaning Myrtle's bathroom to mix the potions, and they all turned different colours. The Daphne potion was candyfloss pink, and when Fern went into the cubicles and drank it, it tasted like burned cherry pie, which was sickly and charred at the same time.

"Are you three OK?" Harry called. The rest of the Quartet recognized Goyle's voice coming from him.

"Yeah, I'm coming!" Fern called. Her voice was sickly sweet, but she knew it could cut like a knife if she wanted it to.

"Yeah." answered Ron as Crabbe.

Hermione's voice sounded pretty much the same as she usually did, and told the others to go on without her. The three kids had to wander around, looking for the Slytherin common room until they ran into Draco, and then they got to see the gloomy room decked out in silver and green for the first time. Fern almost shivered. The colours felt so cold, compared to the bold bright warm red and gold she was used to.

Draco proceeded to show the three kids an article about Ron's father being fined for bewitching a car – the same one Harry and Ron had driven to school.

"Arthur Weasley loves Muggles so much he should snap his wand in two and go and join them." Draco remarked scornfully. "You'd never think the Weasleys were purebloods, the way they behave."

Ron clenched his fists angrily, but pretended his anger was a stomach ache. Fern rolled her eyes and tried not to laugh when Draco accepted this explanation. He noticed that, though.

"You're acting just as weird, Daph." he said. "What's up with you?"

Fern gulped, but quickly thought up an excuse. "Well...I...I didn't realize the Weasleys were actually purebloods! I mean, you were just saying, you'd never think they were. I certainly didn't!" She forced a laugh.

"Anyway, Crabbe," Draco continued, "You should go to the hospital wing, Give all those Mudbloods a kick from me. I'm surprised the Daily Prophet hasn't reported all these attacks yet. I expect Dumbledore's trying to hush it all up. He'll be sacked if the attacks don't stop soon. Father's always said Dumbledore's the worst thing that ever happened to this place. He loves muggleborns. A decent headmaster would never have let a slime like hat Creevey in." He mimicked Colin. "_Potter, can I have your picture? Can I have your autograph?" _He looked at the three disguised Gryffindors. "What's the matter with you?"

It was only lucky that Draco was more interested in his rant about muggleborns and the attacks than anything else. But sadly, he admitted that he wasn't the heir of Slytherin, saying that he wished he knew who it was, because he would help them. He was another one who thought it was a ludicrous idea that Harry was behind all the attacks. "But I know one thing – the last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened, a Mudblood died. So it's only a matter of time before one gets killed this time. I hope it's Granger."

Fern was hanging onto her temper by her fingertips, but she managed to say "Not Jordan?"

Draco sighed. "Daphne, did you not hear me saying before that the only reason I'm not interested in Pansy is because I have Jordan to deal with. I don't want her dead. She's the least annoying of Potter's friends, and I want to win her."

Fern was shocked at this, and it was around that time the Polyjuice Potion wore off. Ron's hair went red. Harry's scar faded in. They ran, but Fern was slower, and by the time she was at the entrance, she was much more tanned, and her hair and eyes were back to normal. She got one more glimpse of Draco, who was left staring, just before she fled to the bathrooms and found out that the hair Hermione had gotten off Millicent was actually cat hair. Myrtle was laughing at Hermione the whole time.

**Well, please review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Now, let's go on. Thanks for reviewing, Lauren Kassidy.**

Hermione ended up in the hospital wing. Polyjuice Potion didn't react well with animal transformations, and it would take a few weeks for her to get back to normal. She still insisted that Fern and the boys bring her homework, though. "I've got to keep up." she said.

One evening after their visit to Hermione, the three kids were about to pass Myrtle's bathroom, but they noticed a flood, which could only mean one thing.

"She's been crying again." Fern muttered, going in. "Are you OK?" she called.

The boys followed.

"Who's that?" Myrtle said, still in floods of tears. "Come to throw something else at me?" She explained that someone had flushed a book on her head while she was in the U-bend. It was a tiny black diary, which looked to be 50 years old.

Ron recognized the name on the diary: T.M Riddle. "He got an award for special service to the school!"

When Hermione was able to leave the hospital wing, they showed her the diary, and she was the one who suggested why he might have gotten the award. The Chamber of Secrets was opened fifty years before, so T.M Riddle might have been the one to find the heir of Slytherin.

However, the diary was blank, and the only things they could find on the student was records of his accomplishments. Fern was starting to dislike him. "He's too perfect." she muttered.

There were no more attacks since before Christmas, and the Mandrakes were growing fast, so people were starting to relax. However, Lockhart decided this wasn't enough and decided to cheer everyone up by arranging to have dwarfs dressed up as versions of Cupid to deliver students their Valentine cards. This was probably more embarrassing for the older students, but the first and second years had their share of embarrassments too.

Fern got a card with a heart that was red, blue, yellow and green. Inside, it said: _The moment I saw you, it was chocolate eyes, and fiery streaked hair._

_You're too pretty to be what you are, and I wish your robe colour matched your name._

_Will you be my Valentine?_

Fern blushed when she read it. "Green robes? What, like a Slytherin?"

It wasn't as bad as Harry's singing Valentine that everyone saw. When Draco saw Ginny passing, he yelled after her "I don't think Potter liked your Valentine much!"

Fern glared at him and said "Did you forget that picking on people smaller than you is what stupid kids who can't pick on people their own size do? It won't kill you to give Ginny a break! How do you know that it was her who sent that, anyway?" Even though she said that, she knew it was no secret that Ginny had a major crush on Harry.

Draco waved a hand dismissively and was about to walk away, when Fern pulled him further up the hallway. "Hey," she said sweetly, "I promised to give you Muggle lessons, didn't I? Let's start now." She barely paused to draw breath as she continued to speak. "A TV is something we use a lot. It's a box that shows pictures that tell a story, like a show. For example, a cartoon TV show I like tells the stories of a dysfunctional family living in America. Like one time, the middle child was running for school president, but the teachers distracted her by making her pretty and popular."

Draco pretended to stifle a yawn. "Very interesting, Fern. Personally, I'd rather we spent time you put aside for giving me your version of Muggle Studies doing this." And with that, he pulled Fern close and into a heated kiss. It wasn't like the year before, when they just touched lips. Fern couldn't have pulled away if she wanted to – which she didn't want to, anyway.

Draco was smirking even more than usual when they broke apart. "I brushed up on my techniques in the summer holidays." he admitted, obviously enjoying the fact that he knew she'd liked it. "I just never had a chance to put them into practice before now. Oh, and by the way, I have a laptop, so I've sent you a Facebook request."

Fern rolled her eyes and walked off to catch up with her friends. "I'm still going to teach you about other Muggle things!" she called over her shoulder.

Everyone that had seen Harry's singing Valentine wasn't planning to let him forget it. Most of the Gryffindor common room teased him about it so much that he went up to his dorm earlier. Fern, who wasn't in the mood to tease after her own Valentine, followed him.

"I'm not going to tease you about it." she said. "I'm just glad no one saw mine. I don't suppose I'm allowed up?"

Harry shrugged. "You can if you want. As long as you leave everyone's stuff alone, they'll be cool with it."

Fern noticed that the diary they'd picked up was still on Harry's bed. "So why do you still have that? What are you going to do with it?"

"Write in it." When Harry first got out his quill, the ink dripped onto the page, but then it faded in seconds.

Fern gasped, and exclaimed "Let me write in it!" She wrote neatly _Hi, I'm Fern Jordan. _Harry also introduced himself.

Their ink faded, again, but this time, they got an answer. A carefully written script appeared, introducing the diary's owner. _"Hello. My name is Tom Riddle. How did you come by my diary?"_

"_Someone was trying to get rid of it." _Fern scrawled.

"_Lucky that I recorded memories in more lasting ways than ink." _Riddle answered. "_I always knew that there would be those who would not want this diary read."_

Harry asked him if he knew anything about the Chamber of Secrets. Riddle answered that he could show the two kids in his memories who opened it. When they gave their consent, they watched the whole scene unfold.

Riddle was a Slytherin, and Fern noticed that he was just as perfect on the surface as she'd imagined. He still wasn't her type, though. Then they saw Riddle speaking to another student, mentioning some girl that was killed. From everything the students said, the two second-years realized that the other student was a young Hagrid, who insisted that whatever creature he was keeping didn't kill the girl, that it wouldn't kill anyone. Riddle didn't seem to believe it...

Fern and Harry were back in the dorm as though they'd never left. Both were pale.

Ron came in right at that moment. "What's up?" he asked, looking from Fern to Harry.

"It was Hagrid." Harry said quietly.

"I can't believe it." Fern whispered.

"Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago."

Everything went around in circles. Ron still wasn't convinced, and when they told Hermione, she wasn't either. Fern still wasn't sure if she believed it either, even though she'd seen it. They all knew Hagrid had been expelled in third year, but it was hard to believe he'd do something that would lead to such destruction, even with his habit of befriending the most dangerous of creatures.

**I loved this scene in the movie much more than in the book. Please review!**


	9. Chapter 9

**OK, things are getting more interesting now. Let's go! Thanks for reviewing, Lauren Kassidy.**

The group had to choose subjects for third year during Easter, so they didn't have any more time to research the Chamber of Secrets for the moment. Harry and Ron had the same choices (because Harry wasn't sure what to pick and copied Ron so he'd have a friend in all his classes), Hermione chose all the subjects, and Fern picked Divination (because the other three did), Care Of Magical Creatures (because she liked creatures), and Muggle Studies (because it was a cheat).

There was a business of Harry's stuff being messed up and Riddle's diary disappearing, which was pretty mysterious. It had to be a Gryffindor who took it, which was pretty strange, since most Gryffindors wouldn't think of doing such a thing.

Harry did hear the voice again, not long afterwards. Immediately he mentioned it, Hermione suddenly jumped up, claiming that she had to go to the library. It was just before a Quidditch match, too.

But the match was cancelled anyway. Harry protested, but Professor McGonagall wasn't listening. She told everyone to go back to their common rooms. Fern and Ron ran up to see what was happening to Harry. It seemed that McGonagall wanted to talk to Harry for some reason, but she didn't object to his friends being there. "Yes, perhaps you two had better come too."

There had been a double attack, with two more Petrified students. One was a Ravenclaw girl from sixth year, but that wasn't why the three were asked there.

Fern started crying for the first time in a long while when she saw Hermione lying there, glassy-eyed and unresponsive. She had been found near the library with a small circular mirror.

There were more and more precautions taken. All students would be taken to their lessons by teachers and would return to their common rooms by six o'clock.

Harry decided to go and see Hagrid, using his Invisibility Cloak to get around undetected. Ron was going too, of course, but Fern wasn't sure herself.

"Muggleborns are the only ones attacked, aren't they?" she said shakily. "Like me. I think I better stay out of this one." The attack on Hermione had really shaken her, and she wasn't ready to break the rules the way she had the year before.

Fern wouldn't listen to anything more about the Chamber of Secrets, either, even when Dumbledore seemed to have left Hogwarts and Hagrid was taken to Azkaban under suspicion of having opened the Chamber. Fern wouldn't even listen when the boys tried to tell her that they'd managed to get an answer. They were sure that Myrtle was the girl who died when the Chamber opened the last time, and that the monster in the Chamber was a Basilisk – a type of serpent who was getting around Hogwarts through the pipes. Hermione had been holding a piece of paper reading 'pipes' when she was leaving the library, so even Petrified, she'd helped. Looking the Basilisk in the eye was suicide, but all the people attack hadn't seen it directly, which was why they were only petrified. Mrs Norris had seen it in a water reflection, Colin had seen it through his camera. Justin had seen it through Nearly Headless Nick's transparent form, and Hermione had seen it in the mirror she held.

Fern only reacted when she found out that a student had been taken into the Chamber of Secrets. Not just any student. It was Ron's little sister, Ginny. Fern immediately sprung up and said fiercely "OK, that's it! I'm not going to continue sitting around and mourning Hermione and the others, who are about to be revived! We're going to go into the Chamber and rescue Ginny!"

It was Lockhart's job to save Ginny, so the group went to give him information. However, he said he was leaving – running away, as it was.

"After all that stuff you did in your books?" Harry said incredulously.

"Books can be misleading." Lockhart answered.

"You mean..." Fern said, half appalled, but not really surprised. "You lied in them?

Lockhart would've put a Memory Charm on the three kids, but they disarmed him and took him up to Myrtle's bathroom, where the opening of the Chamber was.

First, they asked Myrtle how she died. She seemed very pleased to answer, and talked about how she was crying in the bathroom because some girl was teasing her about her glasses, and all she remembered before dying was a pair of yellow eyes.

There was a tap with a snake engraved on it, that Myrtle had been facing when she died. "That tap's never worked." she explained. Fern couldn't believe her ears at Myrtle's tone. If she hadn't been watching the ghost, she would have thought she was smiling.

"Harry, say something in Parseltongue." Ron suggested.

"Open up."

The kids shook their heads, understanding Harry. "English." Fern and Ron said at the same time. But then Harry repeated it in Parseltongue, and it worked. The sink sank out of sight, leaving a pipe that was the same size of a closed-in waterslide.

Lockhart thought he saw his escape. "Well, you hardly seem to need me, I'll just-" But before he could finish, three wands were pointed at him. Disarmed, Lockhart wasn't ready to face three armed twelve-year-olds (well, Ron was only just thirteen, but Fern and Harry were still twelve). Lockhart had to go down first, followed by Harry.

Fern shut her eyes as she went down, and since she couldn't see anything, she enjoyed it. "THIS IS SO AWESOME!" she yelled, and it echoed through the pipes...until she hit the ground and realized what she'd just done. "I didn't wake anything, did I?" she whispered when she saw Harry and Lockhart giving her sanity-questioning looks. "Sorry." She only just managed to jump out of the way as Ron landed.

The four went through the dark tunnel. Harry reminded them to close their eyes at any sign of movement. As they turned a corner, Ron suddenly spoke. "There's something up there..."

It wasn't moving, though. "Maybe it's asleep." Harry whispered. Lockhart kept his hands over his eyes, and Fern looked the other way. But they all looked when Lockhart crumpled to the ground.

"Get up." Ron ordered, pointing his wand again.

Lockhart did – but then he sprang at Ron and got his wand.

"The adventure ends here, kids!" he said triumphantly. "I'll take a bit of this skin up to the school, tell them that I was too late to save the girl, and that you three tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body. Say goodbye to your memories!"

Fern would say later that it was lucky he was using Ron's broken wand. The rocks in the tunnel began falling. Harry made a run for it, but Fern had frozen. He quickly grabbed her wrist and pulled her with him. The rockfall blocked the tunnel off – Fern and Harry on one side, Ron and Lockhart on the other.

"Ron!" Harry yelled through the rocks. "Are you OK?"

"I am!" Ron called back. "He's not, though, he got blasted by the wand. What now? We can't get through. It'll take ages."

"Wait there, wait with Lockhart. I'll go on." Harry answered. "If I'm not back in an hour...

"I'll try and shift some of this rock, so you and Fern can get back." Ron called. "Speaking of which – Fern, are you OK?"

Fern was still not moving. Harry glanced at her. "I think she's in shock." he called. "But apart from that, she's OK. See you in a bit." He quickly talked to Fern, trying to get her to respond. Finally, she spoke.

"What happened?" she asked shakily. "The last I remember is Lockhart trying to wipe our memories with Ron's wand...and the rockfall...did you pull me out of the way?" She didn't need Harry to confirm it, she knew he had.

"We can't get back through." he told her. "I'm going to go on and find Ginny."

Fern's voice trembled, but she sounded surer as she spoke. "I'm coming." she said firmly. "It's dangerous, but I can't stay here alone. We have to stick together. And I'm kind of scared." she admitted. "I couldn't stand being by myself."

Harry hadn't thought about that. Fern didn't seem like she'd be ready to fight, but she was in no state to be on her own. Ron was on the other side, but he couldn't get to her. It was all up to him. "OK." he said quietly. "Come on." Fern stuck close to him as they walked further along the tunnel.

**That took ages! I'm glad I'm making progress with this part of the fic. Moving on to "Prisoner Of Azkaban" will be a treat after all this. Please review!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Let's go on. Thanks for reviewing, soccerisawesome19.**

The two got to the Chamber itself soon enough. Fern was still shivering, shock and fear written all over her face. But she moved fast when she saw the small figure lying there.

"Ginny!" she cried, dropping down to her knees to find the younger girl unconscious.

Harry joined her. "Ginny, don't be dead! Please don't be dead!" He turned her over, finding that she was pale and still, but she was breathing.

"Ginny, please wake up." Harry whispered.

"She won't wake."

The two kids jerked their heads up at the voice. A strangely familiar older boy was standing there.

"Tom.." whispered Harry. "Tom Riddle?" The boy nodded. "Are you a ghost?"

"A memory." Riddle corrected. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years."

Fern was fast recovering some of her Gryffindor courage. It was almost as if she was seeing a familiar face.

One minute later, they were in the same position, but now Riddle had somehow gotten both of their wands. Fern didn't realize that something was wrong with him until he refused to give them their wands back.

"I've waited a long time for this, Harry Potter." Riddle continued. "To see you, to speak to you."

"I don't think you get it." Harry said impatiently. "We're in the Chamber of Secrets. We can talk later."

"We're going to talk now." Riddle replied.

"What about me?" Fern asked. "You can't just cut me out of this conversation."

Riddle merely gave her a passing glance. Fern could have sworn he muttered "Filthy Mudblood" before he turned and talked about how Ginny had been writing in his diary all year. He'd talked back to her, and had been very sympathetic, although he admitted that he had been very bored with her troubles. He'd gained power through Ginny's weaknesses, and managed to use her to open the Chamber of Secrets. He himself was the Heir of Slytherin.

"It took a very long time for stupid little Ginny to stop trusting her diary." he finished. "But she finally became suspicious and tried to dispose of it. And that's where you come in, Harry. You and your Mudblood friend picked it up, and I couldn't have been more delighted...although it was an annoyance, having someone else along." he added, throwing a glare in Fern's direction. "Of all the people who could have found it, it was you, the very person I was most anxious to meet!"

Fern was angry. How dare he call her names. "I heard that, you snob." she spat. "And I heard it before when you muttered it. I've had enough with that stupid discriminatory word! I've heard it enough to last me a lifetime, and I'm definitely not letting you call me that!"

Riddle ignored her. He explained that he wanted to meet Harry and gain his trust – which was why he'd shown himself turning Hagrid in. However, Riddle had actually framed him, and the only one who seemed to believe in Hagrid's innocence was Dumbledore, who was the Transfiguration teacher at the time.

Riddle continued to talk about how he'd left his memory in the diary so he could come back to finish what Salazar Slytherin started, since he knew it would be too risky to open the Chamber again while he was still at school. But he didn't care about targeting the muggleborns any more, "Although for her, I'd make an exception." he added, glancing over at Fern. Riddle's target now, was Harry. He wasn't pleased when the diary opened and Ginny was writing again. She was the one who'd gone through Harry's things and taken the diary. Then the diary had forced her into the Chamber, and she had hardly any willpower left to even live. "She put too much into the diary, into me. Enough to let me leave its pages at last."

Fern's voice was back to a whisper. "But why would you target Harry? I know that because of your racism, you might go after me, but Harry's not even muggleborn. He's not part of that prejudice."

Riddle asked Harry a question – about how he'd been able to evade death at the hands of Voldemort when he was just one year old.

"Why do you care how I escaped?" Harry wanted to know. "Voldemort was after your time."

"Voldemort," Riddle said softly, "Is my past, present and future.." He used Harry's wand to trace his name, TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE, in the air. Then he waved the wand and the letters rearranged itself to spell...I AM LORD VOLDEMORT.

Fern's eyes blazed with shock, anger and fear mixed. Her voice went soft, as it always did when she got scared. "It was you all along? We should've known. Who else fitted the profile for the Heir of Slytherin?"

The teenage boy that would grow up to be Voldemort explained how he had used that name with his inner sanctum when he was still at school, a name that, one day, would be feared by witches and wizards everywhere. He hated all Muggles, and hated having his father's name. Fern secretly wondered why a half-blood had any right to look down on anyone else in the wizarding world. Even Harry himself was a half-blood (son of a pureblood and muggleborn).

It all went by in a blur for Fern, Harry having to fight the Basilisk. Suddenly, Harry was on the ground, and Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix, hovered, crying. The Sorting Hat was there too, with a sword Harry had pulled out of it. But the Basilisk had been able to get a fang in Harry's arm, although he had managed to kill it.

Riddle thought he'd killed Harry. The original reason why he couldn't was because of a protective thing that had come as a result of Harry's mother's (Lily's) death in his place. That was how much she'd loved him. But now, it looked like Harry was dying, and there was nothing Fern could do about it. If Harry was gone, so was she, and Ginny, of course.

But then it happened. Fawkes hadn't been crying in mourning. Phoenix tears had healing powers, and Harry was slowly coming away from the brink of death. Then Fawkes fetched the diary, and dropped it next to Fern.

The Basilisk fang was out of Harry's arm. Fern didn't even have to look at Harry to know what to do. She grabbed the fang and stabbed the diary with it.

Riddle screamed. Fern turned away as he disappeared. And at that moment, Ginny stirred, just as Fern passed out.

**I originally had Fern being more of a coward there, but I had to remind myself, she IS a Gryffindor. Please review!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Shall we end this book? Thank you for your review, .7.**

Fern only woke up in time for the next Hogwarts feast, which took place for the whole night. But nevertheless, she learned that she, Ron and Harry had each earned 200 points for Gryffindor, putting them in the lead again. Lockhart had completely lost his memory after his Memory Charm had backfired and hit him, the same way Ron's hex had done when he tried to hex Draco that time. Best of all, the Petrified students were revived.

Fern was still a bit out of it when they got to the Great Hall, but she was completely alert when she heard a familiar voice yelling "You solved it! You solved it!"

Hermione hugged all three of her friends. "Don't you ever do that to me again!" Fern said, teasingly stern. "Do you realize what I'd have done if the Mandrakes weren't ready by then?

Hagrid was also out of Azkaban and back on the grounds. Justin also apologized to Harry for suspecting that he was the Heir. McGonagall announced that the end-of-year exams were cancelled, much to Hermione's disappointment, and DADA lessons were out for the rest of the school year.

Fern did break down a bit, but only the next day. She was in her dorm with her three room-mates, when Hermione first found her bubbly friend in tears.

"What's wrong?" Hermione whispered. "Everything's OK."

"No, no, you don't understand." Fern sobbed. "I just feel so bad about how useless I was in the Chamber. I'm not a real Gryffindor, I just froze up. The Hat should've put me in Hufflepuff. It thought about it last year."

Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, the other girls, slipped out. They were both sympathetic, and sensed they wouldn't be wanted.

Hermione comforted Fern, reminding her how she'd stood up to Riddle, and stabbed the diary.

Fern managed a watery smile. "Thanks." she said. "I should probably hang out with Moaning Myrtle next. She'll be happy to know she's not the only one flooding."

Fern did go to visit Myrtle at the end of the year, again promising she'd visit next year. But she was over her tears and soon became happy and slightly hyper again. She even took pleasure in telling Draco more Muggle stuff, including the phone.

He'd glared at her and said "Actually, I have a Smartphone. Father doesn't approve, but Mother understands why I should have one and secretly got it for me."

Fern gave him her number, more because she wanted to hear what her friends would say to him rather than because she wanted to hear from him.

She, Harry and Hermione also exchanged telephone numbers with Ron, since Harry had told Ron's dad how to use one last summer. "Call me at the Dursleys', OK?" Harry said as they got off the train. "I can't stand two months with only Dudley to talk to."

They all promised, before leaving. Fern also took a second picture of them all. "I'm going to do that at the end of each year." she said, showing them their picture from the end of first year, which she kept with her. "Wow, it feels like ages ago, doesn't it?"

After a group hug and a call of "See you all September!", the group went their separate ways. Fern didn't tell her parents everything about the Chamber of Secrets, but she gave them a less dangerfied version of the events. She left out the fact that Harry nearly died in the Chamber, and that Riddle turned out to be a young Voldemort, but she waxed lyrical about how stupid Lockhart was, and how if he really wanted to blank their memories, he should have tried to get her wand or Harry's wand instead.

Fern wanted to invite all of her friends over for the summer, but her parents wouldn't let her. They said Hermione could come and stay, but they would prefer not to have the boys over. Fern was especially disappointed about Harry not being able to come, because he didn't deserve the treatment he got from his family.

Fern's report, in spite of no final mark, had good comments. Charms was, as usual, her best subject, and she was pleased to see that her Potions comment was a lot less negative than the year before. She had also improved in Transfiguration, but hadn't done so well in History of Magic, since it was even more boring than the year before.

Fern's home friends had known everything Fern told them about the Chamber Of Secrets, but they were desperate to get a more detailed version, so she told all at their annual "start of summer" sleepover. They were all in the dark with their torches, and Fern told it like a ghost story.

"And then," she whispered, "Riddle wrote his name in shimmery letters, TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE, and waved Harry's wand. Then they spelled out the words...I AM LORD VOLDEMORT!" All the girls screamed.

"Tell me Harry lives!" Rachel begged.

"You actually saw all this?" Jessie said, wide-eyed.

Fern nodded. She also told the group about the normal school stuff. "Harry's singing Valentine was SO funny, but Draco was his usual charming self. He saw Ginny passing, and then yelled after her 'I don't think Potter liked your Valentine much', because it's obvious she has a crush on him. It made me so mad, and I yelled at him to leave her alone."

"Hey, did he do anything this year?" Jamie asked. "What happened?"

Fern kept the kiss to herself. The memory still burned in her mind. She did show the girls the picture she'd taken of her friends, and they all exclaimed on how much prettier Hermione was, surprisingly. "You'd never believe it from that other picture of her." Andrea remarked. "Ooh, and look at Harry! He's totally growing into that messy hairstyle. That will drive girls wild."

Fern also showed the girls Draco's Facebook profile. His last post said "_Going home! See you all next term and I'll rock the schoolhouse!"_

Fern Liked the post and commented "_Correction: I will. Gryffindors rule the school like lions rule the jungle. You snakes better watch out for us!"_

Nancy smirked. "If he calls you, tell me." she said. "I'm so going to call him back to tell him to get a life."

And just as it had been last year, Fern knew she'd enjoy the summer, but she would still miss the rest of the Quartet and couldn't wait to get back to Hogwarts, where everything was magic-cool.

**I know, reference. Anyway, that's the end of Year 2. Stay tuned for "Hyper At Hogwarts – Year 3" and review!**


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